On Piano Playing By Gyorgy Sandor Site

A unique feature is Sándor’s firsthand insight into playing Bartók’s percussive, asymmetrical music. He demonstrates how Bartók’s folk-derived rhythms and dissonant clusters demand non-traditional motions (e.g., flat-fingered attacks, arm clusters). The book includes exercises derived from Bartók’s Mikrokosmos and Sándor’s own etudes.

Some critics find the prose dense and the diagrams rudimentary compared to modern video resources. However, pianists praise its injury-preventive approach—Sándor was among the first to explicitly address repetitive strain injuries (e.g., tendinitis) by eliminating wasted motion. Today, the book remains a staple for advanced students and teachers seeking a physiological, non-dogmatic alternative to Czerny or Hanon. on piano playing by gyorgy sandor

Overview

Sándor insists that motion and sound are inseparable. He critiques the myth of “finger independence” as anatomically impossible, replacing it with coordinated arm, hand, and finger movements. Tone quality, he shows, is controlled by the speed of the key descent and the weight behind the finger , not finger pressure. His chapters on phrasing, pedaling, and rhythm connect technique directly to musical expression—each motion must have a sonic goal. A unique feature is Sándor’s firsthand insight into